ABAKAN, April 21. /TASS/. The head of Russia’s Khakassia pledges houses will be restored by September 1 in the southern Siberian republic where wildfires have damaged more than 1,300 residential buildings in April, leaving more than 4,700 people homeless.
Viktor Zimin said the republic needed 110 million dollars to liquidate the aftermath of wildfires raging in that southern Siberian republic, noting that the first 13.2 million dollars from the federal budget had been received.
At a meeting with President Vladimir Putin he said 515 people were currently living in eight temporary accommodation centers, adding that wildfires had affected 926 children.
The scope of destruction was high as walls of fire reaching five meters spread at more than 40 kilometers per hour, easily crossing wide highways and railway embankments.
According to early estimates, the damage from wildfires has exceeded 140 million dollars. Fifty-four people remain in local hospitals. Repair work continues on electricity facilities.
A total of 380 people have received pecuniary aid of 195 dollars per person, and 134 people have received 2,000 dollars. Three families of the dead have received lump sum assistance of 19,500 dollars each.
Khakassia’s leader Viktor Zimin believes specialists must deeply analyze and work out a set of measures as to how to cope with such extreme situations when more than 1,000 houses caught fire simultaneously, and fires hit several dozen settlements.
On the whole, almost 2,000 houses have been destroyed by fires in Siberia, leaving thousands of local residents homeless. According to the Ministry for Emergency Situations, firefighters have managed to save more than 70,000 residential buildings and social infrastructure facilities in the south of the region.